ANALYSIS TOOLS FOR LAND USE CHANGE IN TEMPERATE EAST ASIA (LUTEA)

Dennis Ojima
Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory
Colorado State University

The growing concern over the impact of changes in land use and land cover on environmental conditions and the increasing human impact on the natural resources in the Temperate East Asian region has captured the attention of the political and scientific community world-wide. In order to better understand the factors affecting changes in land use and cover in the region, and how these changes will interact with further global environmental changes the Land Use in Temperate East Asia (LUTEA) steering committee was formed by the START-Temperate East Asia Committee (TEACOM). The steering committee has been charged to develop a research framework to better facilitate interactions among the research groups actively investigating aspects of land use and land cover changes in the region, and to serve the policy community in order to better evaluate policy decisions on issues related to food security and environmental degradation in the region.

The region of Temperate East Asia has long been recognized for its wealth of natural and human resources. However recently, concern related to the changing environmental conditions in the region due to increasing human pressures degrading the environment have captured the attention of the scientific and political communities. The role of land use and land cover change in maintaining and in some cases leading to the degradation of the environmental health and sustainability of human welfare is a critical to the future of the region. The increasing dependance and utilization of the land and water resources in this region will further tax the limits of the ecological systems and increase the risk of environmental degradation. In addition, the need to produce food and clean water for the growing number of people in the region will further focus attention on the changes in land use and land cover in the region.

Growing from this concern to better understand the factors determining land use and land cover changes in the region and evaluate the potential impact these changes will have on the human condition and future global environmental change, the Temperate East Asian Committee of START (TEACOM) sponsored a working group to develop a science plan for land use and cover change studies in this region. The Land Use in Temperate East Asia (LUTEA) working group developed a science plan and organized a workshop (LUTEA workshop November 8-9, 1996 in Kyoto, Japan) to refine the science plan and to develop an implementation strategy for LUTEA research activities.

Our overall objectives are 1) to better understand the role and consequences of changes in climate, ecosystem dynamics, human demography, and socio-economic transitions on land use and land cover in temperate East Asia during the past 100 years and into the next decade; and 2) develop a mechanism to assess the short-term and long-term changes in food security and environmental conservation in the TEA region. The region of study extends from China; Korea, DPR; Korea, R; Japan; Mongolia; and Eastern Russia.

In view of the important role of land use/cover change in this region to past and future changes in global earth system dynamics and the sustainable development of the region, the LUTEA steering committee has formed a network of land use and cover change research groups.

The function of the LUTEA network is:

Research in the region on various aspects of land use and land cover change is well developed. Research conducted by scientists from around the world are currently engaged in investigations ranging from changes in population affecting land use and natural resources, to impact of intensification of agriculture practices on atmospheric pollution. Studies are being conducted by social and physical scientists on various aspects of the land use and land cover change issues. However, many of the researchers are not aware of what other related research is being conducted and what information has already been gathered that may be relevant to their own research. The development of the LUTEA network will provide a mechanism for greater exchange of information useful for the scientific and the policy communities alike. The network will provide a vehicle for development of common databases that are needed by many of the LUTEA research groups. The workshop in Kyoto initiated the development of the network and we plan to hold a series of similar meetings to further facilitate the exchange of information.

The LUTEA Network consists of existing research groups engaged in investigations within the region (see Appendix of Ongoing LUTEA related Research). The research activities are categorized in topical (or sectoral) issues that are regionally relevant and in description of analytical and assessment methodologies employed by the research groups. The network members have agreed to share information and work together to develop analytical tools and databases in order to better address land use/cover changes in the region and the impact these will have on human welfare and environmental conditions. This information will also serve as a useful tool for policy makers and for evaluation of policy decisions.

The proposed structure of the LUTEA network will be to utilize gradients of important driving factors, such as physical conditions, natural resource base, land use, and economic development, to focus the research efforts in the region. The project will utilize information gathered from past and ongoing research efforts in this region. The use of transects to conduct the gradient analysis will be implemented where feasible. The North East China Transect will be available for this study, and discussion of developing another north-south transect is being considered. The transects will not be the only mechanism to integrate the research findings. The network will pull together information from a number of sources to address research issues along tropical or sectoral foci. The steering committee has selected four topical issues of regional and sectoral importance to the TEA region and defines the initial set of studies and integration activities. The regional sectoral issues are:

The integration activities are:

Currently, the North East China Transect (NECT), centered on the 43.5 latitude line, is defined for regions in China. The ecosystems include forests, croplands and grasslands. The transect is defined by a strong rainfall gradient, and includes a variety of land use options. The transect also includes three long-term ecological research sites operated by the Chinese Ecological research network (CERN of the CAS). The LUTEA will utilize this transect for investigating land use changes in this region of TEA. It has been proposed for the extension of this transect to extend into Mongolia to facilitate comparisons in land use intensity.

A north-south transect is proposed that would represent a gradient in rainfall and socio-economic factors. This north-south oriented transect would also capture the potential changes land surface exchanges that may interact with the monsoonal incursions that strongly determine rainfall patterns in this region of the world. These transects will serve as initial study areas to better quantify changes in land use and cover dating the past several decades.

Land use/cover changes in the temperate east Asia region has been a major factor in ecosystem changes for a long period of time. Agricultural and livestock developments have been recorded for millennia in this region. Due to a long history of environmental exploitation and recent population increases, the region is prone to environmental stresses such as salinization, desertification, deforestation, soil erosion, water pollution and air pollution. The strong impact that human activities have on land cover and ecosystem dynamics modifies the degree that biogeochemical exchanges interact with the atmosphere. The exchange of C, N, and other atmospheric constituents have been greatly modified over the region. In view of the important role of land use/cover changes in this region may play in future changes in global earth system dynamics and the sustainable development of the region, accurate determination of land cover in the region is critical. During the workshop we developed a revised consistent land cover map for the Temperate East Asian region using the 1992 NOAA-AVHRR 1-km remote sensing information and existing land cover maps developed using traditional geographical techniques.

The purpose of this workshop is:

The project was led by Dennis Ojima and Larry Tieszen, and involved scientists at the EDC, CSU, CAS, MAS, Mongolian Ministry of Nature and Environment, Chiba University CERE, IIASA, and START and IGBP/IHDP LUCC. Support is sought from international and national sources, including UNEP and US-agencies, such as DOI, NASA, and NSF.

The development of an accurate land cover database for the region will assist a number of research groups to address issues related to ecosystem dynamics, sustainable use of natural resources, and the future impact of environmental and human-related changes in land management in the region.

This research provides critical information for a number of international projects which cut across a variety of scientific disciplines, including physical, ecological, social, and economic sciences. Field and modeling studies will also benefit from the development of the evaluation of the land cover characteristics for this region in order to better characterize the factors controlling ecosystem dynamics (i.e., soil C and fertility, plant composition and production, isotopic C composition of soils, land use, and vegetation) and evaluate the sensitivity of these ecosystems to changes in climate and land use are planned.

Currently a number of funded projects are seeking ways to classify land cover in the region. These projects include: Northern East China Transect, Chinese Ecological Research Network (CERN) Projects, IMGRASS, IIASA study on Eurasian Steppe, Japanese Institute of Remote Sensing Project for ADEOS and various US funded activities funded by the NSF, NASA, USGS, and USDA.

These international studies are underway or are in the planning stages that will investigate changes in climate, biogeochemical, and social-economic systems due to changes in human activities in Temperate East Asia region and related to land use changes. These research efforts will provide links between continental studies between Asia and North America. Assessment of changes in environmental factors and land use will be made relative to changes in human offtake from these ecosystems. The implications of different land use practices on ecosystem properties of stability and resilience and the long-term human offtake from the natural resource base will be studied in the future activities of the project.

Land Cover Maps for Temperate East Asia

We developed a 1-km land cover map based on the AVHRR-derived satellite data prepared by EROS-DC. A hierarchy of land cover maps will be generated which will include at the coarsest level the IGBP classes and at the more refined level a map of ecosystem types. The value of the land cover map products will be that they will be generated in a consistent fashion for the entire region.

Identification of sources of climate, soil, DEM, roads, socio-economic data layers will be made relative to current efforts of research groups to study land use and cover changes in the region.

We are planning for another LUTEA meeting for the coming fall, MARCH 2 thru 5, 1998 in BEIJING. Would like to know if you will be able to attend this workshop. We hope to spend two days going over significant science outcomes from our various projects (first 2 days), then continue our discussions of how best to proceed with research, training coordination and networking issues for LUTEA studies.

The structure of meeting will be two days of scientific presentations consisting of plenary presentations and posters from LUTEA related research projects. As the list of participants becomes finalized, we will prepare the final agenda of speakers. The preliminary list includes presentations by Dennis Ojima, Kuninori Ostubo, Zhao Shidong, Li Changsheng, Liu JiYuan, Liu Chuang, T. Chuluun, Yoshiaki Honda. The topics of these presentations will cover issues related to development and application of demographic data for land use analysis, remote sensing applications to land cover / land use changes, agricultural impacts on biogeochemical processes, integration of social and physical data sets. Will be soliciting poster presentations from all participants in order to provide an opportunity of the research groups to display various results of their research and data developments. The posters will play a prominent role for the meeting and time will be set aside to discuss research activities across several of the projects. In addition to the posters, if you wish to have material you wish to demonstrate, such as models, remote sensing data, web sites, gis tools, etc please let me know and we will set aside time for these demonstrations.

The following two-days, March 4 and 5 will be used for a workshop focused to develop future research plans for LUTEA. The workshop will be organized around several themes and breakout groups will be formed to discuss the critical issues and develop a strategy to address these issues. The suggested topics for the breakout groups include, integration of social and physical data sets, development of remote sensing information for detecting land cover/land use changes, verification of regional analysis of land use changes, analytical framework for assessing sustainable land use. I will interested hearing from you other suggestions of the topics that you will like to discuss.

We plan to hold a two week training workshop that will provide technological development regarding applications of toward database development for land use/cover change studies. We will provide training in ecosystem modeling, GIS, and remote sensing techniques for evaluation of land use and land cover dynamics. The two week workshop will be instructed by researchers involved in LUCC, GCTE, and LUTEA studies relevant to the region. We will use examples developed for the region and provide tutorials for researchers of the region.

The workshop will provide hands-on experience with ecosystem modeling using the Century, training in PC-ARC/INFO, and remote sensing applications. The workshop will also cover the methodology of coupling information between the analytical tools, and provide insight of how to best apply the various techniques to land use and cover studies.

The workshop will be held in Ulanbataar, Mongolia in collaboration with the Ministry of Nature and Environment and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. We will plan to hold this workshop in late May or early June of 1998. We will use as part of the instructional material the land cover analyzes and remote sensing coverage that will be developed this year (May 1997) of the temperate east Asia landcover (TEAL) database. Model analyzes will be generated for the workshop to cover current and potential changes in climate under different GCM outputs. The workshop will cover basic techniques and incorporate key concepts dealing with global change studies and land use/cover change studies.

We will have room for approximately 20 participants for the workshop, 8 to 10 from Mongolia, 5 from China, and 4 from other Asian countries, 3 from other regions. We plan to have 4 instructors from the US, Japan, China, and Mongolia.

Contact Dennis Ojima for more information regarding any of these LUTEA activities at:

Dennis Ojima
Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1499
tel: (+1 970) 491 1976
fax: (+1 970) 491 1965
email: dennis@nrel.colostate.edu

This page coded by Karen Shibuya and is © NREL 1999. It was last updated Friday, October 15, 1999 10:25:19 AM